Benson Stone Company home page
Written In Stone

No. 21 April 2003

Dale Layng

 
 

When it comes to commercial projects, granite is not a luxury... it's a necessity! None of us appreciate a product that wears out prematurely before we have received the benefit of invested time, energy and money. Conversely, we do appreciate a product that meets and exceeds our expectations. Granite is just such a product.

I have been selling granite for more than a dozen years and have experienced granite's incredibly high levels of customer satisfaction due to its beauty and durability. Benson Stone Company has a wonderful testimony right in our store. The HearthRock Café service counter is made of African Red granite. Over 1,000 customers a week are served on that counter. Multiply that by the two years that the café has been open, and that computes to more than 104,000 trays, food items, drinks, etc., passing across the granite top — and it still looks brand new. The counter top is approximately 32" x 79", but the actual service area is 32" x 36". This is a lot of traffic in a very small area. The café tables also sport various types of granite, and they also look as good as the day they were installed.

 

Café countertop
Over 104,000 served!

HearthRock Café

A separate but equally compelling testimony is Rockford's City Hall. Built in the 1920s, the granite base on this older building needed to be matched for a new addition. The Rockville granite used on the base is still available today, and gave a very good match. The existing granite appears unaffected by the freezing and thawing, rain, snow, salt and dirt that it had to contend with on the corner of State and Second streets for the past 80 years. The ability of this product to weather the harshest of conditions for generations, and still blend with newly fabricated product is truly impressive.

This is one big advantage to using natural building products. All of the stone that will ever be used is already produced. This one huge "production run" is just waiting to be pulled from its underground warehouses to be used in projects generations from now. Natural stone is truly a timeless building material, one that will stand the test of time in both durability and style.

 

Rockford City Hall 1
Old and new

Rockford City Hall 2

 

Benson Stone Company home page

1100 Eleventh Street • Rockford, IL 61104
www.bensonstone.com

Dale Layng, architectural sales manager
Phone: (815) 227-2000 ext. 140
Fax: (815) 227-2002

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